Total Bargain
by hiding duh
Summary: Nick/Cassie. So, how'd Cassie get to Hong Kong?


For **vegarin** because she made me see this.

**Title**: Total Bargain  
**Fandom**: Push  
**Characters/Pairings**: Nick/Cassie-ish  
**Summary**: So, how'd Cassie get to Hong Kong?  
**Rating**: PG  
**Word Count**: 1200  
**Notes**: This is completely inappropriate, but not exactly my fault, right, movie?

* * *

Nick hates kids.

And living in Hong Kong, he's become familiar with prostitots.

Little girls dressed like hookers—too tall and too scrawny to attract attention. From decent guys, at least.

So, Nick doesn't get it. She's a kid. Annoying, kinda whiny, very loud. Dresses like she has to wear everything she owns _at the same freakin' time_. Hurts his eyes, really. And the hair, seriously?

"Ten thousand dollars," the man says in broken English, stroking his thin goatee.

Cassie pauses. "Not bad."

Nick rolls his eyes. "He means Hong Kong dollars." He grabs her shoulder with a scowl and drags her along. "That's barely a thousand real dollars."

Calm, Cassie looks up at him. "We need the money."

He keeps walking. "He wanted to buy you. Do you know why?"

She takes out her fugly notebook and shows him. "Yup."

Nick cringes, swatting at the page. "Put that away. I don't want to get arrested."

Unamused, she scoffs and shakes him off. "I'm not a kid. I can get us the money. I saw how."

Nick would like to heave a deep, suffering sigh, but he's an adult. He's got this. "You're a kid. _I'll_ get us the money."

"Okay," she agrees, but her voice is oddly lilted. "I guess I should learn Chinese."

He cocks a curious eyebrow.

" 'Cause we'll be here for a while?" she adds.

Nick squints at the open marketplace, scanning the alleys for grifters. "I'll get us the money. And I'll get us out of Hong Kong. And then you'll shut up, okay?"

Unconvinced, Cassie consults her notebook. "I've been wrong before," she shrugs, narrowing her eyes. "I guess."

He nods to no one in particular, then fixes his eyes on a short sweaty man skulking beneath a flickering shop sign. "I'll handle this." He glances at her. "Alone."

She ignores him. Follows. Of course.

"I don't want trouble," the man warns in Chinese, withdrawing into the shadows the moment he spots them. Switches to English: "You bad news. I honest man. No trouble."

Nick holds up a hand. "Just looking for a quick game, Chen. Nothing dangerous. Promise."

Cassie taps her foot.

Chen's eyes fix on her suspiciously for a moment, taking in the boots and that belt of a 'skirt' she's wearing. "You bad man, Nick. She child."

Exasperated, Nick flicks his fingers, half-heartedly pushing the man into a crumbling wall. "Just tell me where Wu is."

With a leer, Chen shrugs one shoulder. "Behind Dim Sum," he drawls in Chinese, then switches again. "I give you five thousand for girl."

Nick stalks off, fists clenched.

Quickly, Cassie catches up to him. "My price went down, Nick. You're doing this wrong."

He rounds a corner, scrunching up his nose. "I'm not trying to sell you, you idiot."

She sighs as though _he's_ the child.

He looks at her, suddenly curious. "Cassie."

"Yeah?"

"How'd you get to Hong Kong?"

"Same way I'll get out," she announces with a grin.

Nick has a headache. So, they want to buy her? Okay with him.

"One roll; you keep quiet," he instructs, advancing on a group of crouched men.

He can't hear her reply over the cheering and the hollering, but he's pretty sure she's giving him an unpleasant look.

Full of purpose, he bends over the mat, towering above the men, and levels his gaze with Wu's. "Twenty thousand."

Wu's shoulders stiffen. "That's what you owe me. You wanna die, eh?"

Casually, Nick grabs the dice. With a smirk, he cocks his head. "Not particularly. Twenty thousand."

Wu gives a noncommittal nod.

The dice feel wrong in his palms, but Nick tosses them anyway. One hits the mat with a soft thwack. The other one rolls, refuses to land. He needs a two. This is easy. He's got this. Just has to concentrate.

"Five!" Wu roars.

What the hell, seriously. Nick's cheating. He shouldn't be _losing_.

"Told you," Cassie says, notebook pressed to her chest.

The men around Nick draw up menacingly.

Nick straightens.

Then suddenly, Cassie accuses: "You're cheating." Nick gives her a quick _of course I am_ glare. She glances at him, irritated. "I meant _him_." She stretches out her hands and proffers her notebook. "The dice are loaded."

The men pause to study her drawing, expressions blank.

Displeased, Cassie points at her notebook. "They're dice. Dice!"

"They look like boxes to me," one of the men comments in Chinese, then turns angry eyes to Wu.

Nick knows trouble. Nick generally _is_ trouble. Yeah. It's definitely time to split.

He propels Cassie in front of him, squeezing her through the mob and bolting for the docks.

"Can we sell me now?" she pants, skidding to a halt next to an abandoned stand.

"No," he snaps, leaning on his knees. Catches his breath, and tries again. "We'll go see Hook. He'll fake us some money."

"That won't work," she mumbles, tying her hair up. One pink streak falls out. "Just watch and learn."

Before he can throw her over his shoulder and haul her away, she's approaching a seedy looking foreign guy, her skinny legs moving in a... well, he doesn't have an appropriate adjective for such an inappropriate thing.

"—fifteen thousand," he hears the man say.

"Wait! No!"

Cassie looks over her shoulder, eyebrows drawn together. "Fifteen sounds good," she agrees, still looking at Nick. Slowly, she turns back to the foreigner. "Where do you want to do it?"

The man loosens his dirty tie. "Right here is good."

Nick's fingers are quicker than his mouth.

The man slams into the stand with a grunt.

"What are you doing, you idiot!" Cassie shrieks, pawing at Nick's chest.

Coughing, the man slumps down, legs spreading at an awkward angle.

Nick feels like maybe he looks like a pimp. Of a tiny prostitot. Jesus.

"What is _wrong_ with you?" she demands, watching the man right himself then quickly scuttle off. "Fifteen thousand! Gone!"

Nick pries her fingers off. "Look, I can't let you do that."

Cassie tilts her head. "But that's my thing. It's what I do."

His eyes soften. Poor kid. This isn't right. He's gotta do something for her. "Cassie—"

"I read their fortunes; they pay me," she glares. "What's wrong with that?"

Nick pauses, mouth dry. "What?"

She's watching him like maybe he needs a Stitch or two. "...are you okay, Nick?"

No. He's not. But: "That's what you meant? You sell your visions?"

"Yeah," she blinks. "What else?"

Yeah. What else. She's just a gangly kid. Who'd want to buy... that. "What the hell was that drawing you showed me?"

Cassie flips back a few pages. "Me, reading their fortunes," she explains impatiently. "See, that's a pen."

Nick rubs his face, exhaling. "Okay, let's get some money. I need to buy you drawing lessons." His arm wraps around her shoulder. He grins and tugs her along. "And a hairbrush. And some pants."

She grumbles, but relaxes as they walk.

Nick hates kids. But maybe he'll make an exception for this one.


End file.
